NEW YORK - Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has called for a broad “regional dialogue,” saying Yemen would be a “good place to start.”
Zarif, who reached a framework agreement on his country’s nuclear programme earlier this month with the US and its negotiating partners, also tied the agreement to broader regional cooperation. “To seal the anticipated nuclear deal, more political will is required,” he wrote in an op-ed article in the New York Times on Monday.
“It is time for the United States and its Western allies to make the choice between cooperation and confrontation, between negotiations and grandstanding, and between agreement and coercion.” The foreign minister the nuclear issue between world powers and Tehran as “a symptom, not a cause, of mistrust and conflict.”
 With the gains made in pursuit of a broad agreement between Iran and Western powers over its nuclear program, “it is time for Iran and other stakeholders to begin to address the causes of tension in the wider Persian Gulf region,” Zarif urged. Iran has repeatedly called for an end to Saudi-Egyptian combat operations in Yemen aimed at stopping the advance of Houthis and restore the government of Abd Rabbo Mansur Hadi, who fled the country.. “Yemen would be a good place to start” a regional dialogue, Zarif wrote. “Iran has offered a reasonable and practical approach to address this painful and unnecessary crisis. Our plan calls for an immediate cease-fire, humanitarian assistance and facilitation of intra-Yemeni dialogue, leading to the formation of an inclusive, broad-based national unity government.” The foreign minister notes that “the wider Persian Gulf region is in turmoil. It is not a question of governments rising and falling: the social, cultural and religious fabrics of entire countries are being torn to shreds.” But in the midst of that turmoil, he goes on, “endowed with a resilient population that has stood firm in the face of coercion while simultaneously showing the magnanimity to open new horizons of constructive engagement based on mutual respect, Iran has weathered the storms of instability caused by this mayhem.” “One cannot confront Al Qaeda and its ideological siblings, such as the so-called Islamic State, which is neither Islamic nor a state, in Iraq, while effectively enabling their growth in Yemen and Syria.” There are multiple arenas where the interests of Iran” and other major stakeholders intersect. The establishment of a collective forum for dialogue in the Persian Gulf region, to facilitate engagement, is long overdue.